Anya Delachene

November 21, 2020 10:53 AM

Hey Theo's Trio! by Anya Delachene

Anya was sitting with Theo and Stanley at the Pecari table as she often did on a fairly regular basis. She had a number of friends that she cycled around with, but Theo and Stanley were the easiest the meet up with since they were all in the same house.

"Hey, guys," she greeted cheerfully as she plopped down with them and reached for some breakfast food. "So I think my brother is crushing on somebody," she informed them, not really intending to gossip so much as help her work through what she thought about this development. "Last night, he was sitting with me over here, but every couple of minutes I caught him staring back over at the Teppenpaw table and not paying attention to what I was saying. When I ask him what he was thinking about or who he was looking at he denied he was doing either thing. So I think it's a crush." She nodded in agreement with her own conclusion. "That what it has to be, right? Especially if he's blushing when he's saying he's not thinking about anything or looking at anybody?"

"And if that is what's happening, should I just leave him alone or encourage him to try asking her out? I mean, he's talking with the girl he kept looking at now," she waved over to the Teppenpaw table where Philippe was chatting casually with Valentine Duell, though he didn't look like he was trying to be anything but friends from here, "so maybe he doesn't need any encouragement, but if he won't tell me, he's probably not going to tell her, either."
1 Anya Delachene Hey Theo's Trio! 1453 1 5

Stanley O'Malley

November 21, 2020 11:40 AM

I like the sound of that. by Stanley O'Malley

Through a full, eager mouth, Stanley was talking very loudly and very fast about something of literally zero importance when Anya came to join him and Theo. As far as girls went, Anya was pretty cool. Other than, like, Lavender, Stanley was pretty used to just hanging out with boys, in major part from his big boy posse of Theo, Wally, and Tommy, but also from times with Gabriel and other cousins around their age. It seemed like girls - especially Pureblood girls like most of Stanley’s cousins - were a bit more delicate and fragile. But Anya wasn’t like that. She was as rough and tumble as he was, with the energy to match, and he respected that about her.

But when she began the new conversation by talking about a crush her brother may or may not have had, he nearly tuned out. Philippe was in his grade, and he was okay, but Stanley definitely didn’t care about his crushes. Anya waved at him across the way at the Teppenpaw table, though, and the motion caught Stanley’s attention again, so he followed her gaze over. “Oh, dang,” he said. “I hope he’s not crushing on Valentine.”

“I’m gonna ask Valentine out,” he elaborated for Anya’s benefit. Theo already knew this was in process. “My cousin Lavender is like best friends with her, so I gave her a note to give to Valentine for me to ask her out.” He didn’t think Lavender had done it yet - he’d only just given it to her recently so she might not have had a chance - and he hadn’t heard back from Valentine with an answer. He was in girlfriend limbo, so Philippe better not be swooping in!
12 Stanley O'Malley I like the sound of that. 1491 0 5

Theo Spurn

November 21, 2020 4:39 PM

Nothing is delightful by Theo Spurn

Theo loved his... god-nephew? His whatever-relation-they-were. HIS STANLEY. He loved his Stanley very much. He just wished he didn't have to watch him eat sometimes. It was a messy process. And whilst Theo was somewhat oblivious to mess in the forms of clutter or knocked over lamps or the like, sticky, stainy, messy mess was not on his okay list. He had set up a barricade of condiments though, and Stanely knew that was a line not to be crossed, and they would be fine so long as no one else wanted the ketchup.

For his own part, Theo wasn't very hungry. He had served himself some peas because he knew he was supposed to eat something and peas were just delightful. Only he wasn't delighted. He was nudging them around his plate with his fork, watching them roll, and not feeling particularly like putting them in his mouth. He could feel a horrible millimetre of draft around his ankles. His stupid body was doing the becoming-a-longer-human thing, and many of his favourite softs were in danger of becoming too small. He could stretch them out with lengthening charms but that wasn't great for the fabric and he might rip it and then, even with a mending charm, it would Never Be The Same Again because he would Know. Several of his clothes had been through one round of charms the last time he hadn't wanted to grow out of them. Add to that that he kept feeling sweaty or emotions, and being a teenager just sucked.

He was relieved to get some kind of distraction when Anya sat down, although he much would have preferred if she had come in with an announcement about how she had found a way for them all to stay young forever. It was sort of the opposite. It was about her brother growing up. Theo wasn't really sure why he would want to do that when he was only a second year. He was also kind of confused by Anya's evidence. He himself often stared into space when she was talking but it didn't mean that he wasn't listening or had a crush on someone. Crushes were feelings like you wanted to extra squish/kiss/marry someone. Also, she had said 'her' which was Assuming, which made an ass out of you and me. You were supposed to talk about people liking people. Though even that was sort of exclusionary cos Beings were a thing.

"I don't have a crush on anyone," he informed her, "And sometimes boys like boys," he added, once again show casing his ability to have followed his own train of thought and ended up somewhere that most people probably weren't.
13 Theo Spurn Nothing is delightful 1476 0 5

Anya Delachene

November 21, 2020 5:30 PM

We'll have to work on that delightfulness by Anya Delachene

Anya blinked in surprise at Stanley's declaration. She had not expected competition for Philippe from that quarter, though maybe she should have given they were both in the same year as Val, and Val was pretty popular. "Oh, no. I'm pretty sure it was Val he was staring at," she admitted in dismay. She really didn't know where she was supposed to stand here. Philippe was her brother, but Stanley was her friend. Which one was she supposed to kindly nudge toward a different person? Though it sounded like it was already too late to nudge Stanley anywhere. She'd maybe have to work on convincing Philippe he should try going a different direction with his affections. The good news there was that it didn't seem like Philippe was admitting his affections to anyone yet, possibly even to himself, so maybe that wouldn't be too hard since she'd caught it early.

Anya blinked again when Theo chimed in, but she was kind of used to being surprised by the directions Theo took conversations down. She couldn't have said he was gay (or maybe bi - 'sometimes' was a tricky qualifier there without more context), though, so okay. Good to know. She was glad so many people felt comfortable telling her these things! "Right. I don't have a crush on anyone either, and that's fine. We've got tons of time, and we don't need to rush that. But I think Philippe does and I don't want him to get hurt if she's already dating Stanley!"
1 Anya Delachene We'll have to work on that delightfulness 1453 0 5

Stanley O'Malley

November 21, 2020 5:41 PM

Seems like it'll be delightful in Stanley Town though. by Stanley O'Malley

Well, heck.

Anya sounded a little more sure now that it was Valentine that Philippe liked. That was inconvenient. Philippe was a fine kid, Stanley supposed, and he didn’t want him to be sad when his heart got broken. But if he asked out Val, he was totally going to get his heart broken. Or if not, maybe his lip broken.

Just kidding. Stanley thought Valentine was cute, and he obviously wanted to date her, but it wasn’t that critical. They were twelve. Nothing was that critical. Stanley considered himself pretty darn chill, at least in that kind of context. He was a pretty energetic kid, but as far as relationships went, it was pretty go-with-the-flow. He liked Val, but it wasn’t going to be the end of the world. It would just be, as previously mentioned, inconvenient. He would be bummed if she said no, or if she dated somebody else. But he was also bummed when Mom made brussel sprouts for dinner instead of mac and cheese. He got over it.

Theo’s addition to the conversation was… a bit of a non-sequitur, really, but that was kinda how Theo rolled sometimes. You were either on the same page as him, or you just weren’t. Sometimes Stanley thought he was on the same page, but then he would discover that even though the page number matched, they were actually in completely different books. Other times, he was right there with Theo. Both were equally common. Sometimes he just nodded along because he liked Theo and they were family. So he was glad Anya sorta fielded it this time.

“Well, we aren’t dating yet,” Stanley added, as if that would help. “But, like, it’s pretty much in motion.” Stanley fully expected Valentine to say yes. After all, what reason was there to say no? He was fun and cool, and pretty well liked around here, at least as far as he could tell. “That sucks for Philippe, though. I’m sorry.” He noted with mild amusement that if Anya did have a crush on somebody, it might be convenient if it was Theo. They hung out all the time anyway, and Stanley had no concept of “third wheel” to feel uncomfortable about it. He’d probably let her date Wally too, but that might be weird because she was like a real teenager and Stanley and Wally were only twelve. Plus, she couldn’t really see Wally being Anya’s type. Anya was way too fun.
12 Stanley O'Malley Seems like it'll be delightful in Stanley Town though. 1491 0 5

Theo Spurn

November 23, 2020 2:41 AM

I have solutions! by Theo Spurn

"Maybe neither of you has a crush on Valentine," Theo suggested. He and Anya were older than both Stanley and Philippe after all, and neither of them had a crush on anyone. Plus Anya wanted advice, and no one liking Valentine was a good solution. "Neither of you like her, and we can just build a big blanket fort and hang out together," he suggested. That sounded way better than liking a girl. "It could be in MARS if you want to include Philippe," he added to Anya because she had wanted ways of helping him and everyone going off and playing in a blanket fort in a room that you couldn't go in was literally the opposite of helping. It would be torture. He wondered if the other common rooms had blanket fort building? It seemed like more of a Pecari thing but Teppenpaws seemed like they might be up for it too.

"I bet Teppenpaw is really soft," he added whistfully.

"You and Philippe could also go out with each other instead," he suggested to Stanley, cos he was on a roll with solutions here. Valentine would be on her own then, but she really wasn't a very important part of this as far as Theo was concerned. Philippe got to be included because he was Anya's brother and no one wanted him to be sad. Valentine could just go away. That was what happened to toys when you couldn't agree and ended up fighting over them. He was aware that Valentine was a person and they couldn't just shut her up in a cupboard for causing disagreements but she could just go be a person somewhere else, away from them. Or they could learn to share nicely.

"Can you both go out with her?" he suggested. Most people seemed to just be going out with one person, but he wasn't sure if that was a rule. Most stories ended with boys marrying girls and his Mum had made sure he knew that wasn't always true, so maybe this wasn't either.
13 Theo Spurn I have solutions! 1476 0 5